Under isostatic pressure aerogels display an irreversible shrinkage caused by plastic
deformation. As a consequence of this plastic shrinkage it is possible to densify,
and thus to modify the
elastic properties of aerogels. We show that the elasticity of the material is strongly influenced by
structural transformation, and we observe a weakening of the network during the first stage of
densification. The structural evolution, followed by Small Angle X-ray Scattering, shows that the
densification mechanism is different from the one obtained by a sintering at high temperature. The
densification mechanism induces a textural change at the periphery of the constitutive clusters but not
inside, in contrast to viscous sintering.

Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.

Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.